


Flagship

by EndmostGekko (Krivoklatsko)



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 07:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14039340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krivoklatsko/pseuds/EndmostGekko





	Flagship

The Dark One and Roukaryu requested Monochrome Dreams. It isn't quite as good as Bumblebee, but at least it isn't Enabler.

Weiss Schnee interrupted her team's walk by jumping ahead and addressing everyone.  
“Okay, now, Ruby, I think you should knock on the door and be at the front of the group.”  
Ruby recognized Weiss' social anxiety manifesting as bossiness. In these situations, she'd learned to say, “okay,” instead of “Why?”

Weiss nodded and turned to Blake, who interrupted, “Let me guess... The back?”  
“You never smile!” Weiss strained.  
“They invited us to hang out and chill,” Blake said, “It's not a networking event.”  
“Everything is a networking event,” Weiss huffed.  
“Yeah, I'm gonna network a lot with Fox tonight,” Yang chided.  
“Look, guys, this is the first time another team has invited us to their room! And they're way older than us, and they're way cooler than you guys!”  
Weiss held her hands out, clasped together in pleading.  
“Just... Don't mess it up, okay?”  
They stopped at the door. Ruby shrugged.  
“Weiss, come on, what's the worst thing that can happen?”  
She knocked.

From inside, Coco shouted, “It's unlocked!”  
Ruby slapped the keypad and the door slid open, releasing a cloud of white smoke. Ruby sniffed the air and mumbled, “Yatsuhashi's incense smells weird.”  
Team RWBY's expressions all swapped when they realized what it was. Yang wore Ruby's childlike happiness, Weiss took on Blake's distant disapproval, and Blake smiled with Yang's comfort.

They had to push through a hanging bead door as they entered, but the room was welcoming and spacious inside. Fox and Coco were reclining on a plush beanbag bed, watching videos on a scroll in Fox's lap. Yatsuhashi flipped through a comic book. Velvet sat cross legged in front of a screen and mashed her lithe fingers on a controller.

Coco's scroll sat idle on a shelf, connected by jury rigged copper wiring to a makeshift speaker system around the room. Electronica screeched and Bass reverberated in everyone's chests.

The pairing off was quick and instinctual. The burning herb returned Blake to the good days in the White Fang, sitting under the stars with a fire for heat and a fire for smoke. She'd run from that life, and she'd spared no words cursing it, but there had been moments when the revolutionaries let their guards down and enjoyed each other's company. And those moments, she missed them so much it hurt.

Yatsuhashi saw that in her eyes, and the grateful smile she tossed his way said the rest. He nodded and grinned back.

Weiss found herself standing awkwardly next to Velvet. She was analyzing the girl's game, the way her fingers moved on the controller, the way her tongue poked out when she concentrated. It was rude to stare, but it was ruder to interrupt, so Weiss knelt beside her, legs folded politely under her combat skirt.

The choice was forced. She had misjudged her friend Blake. She had misjudged all faunus. And with no basis in reality to approach faunus kind from, she was left only with exposure. So she sat beside Velvet and waited to see what would happen.

Velvet glanced to her side and smiled apologetically.

“Oh my goodness,” she realized, “I didn't notice anyone had entered.”  
She paused the game and covered her blush.  
Weiss almost answered, “I thought faunus could...”  
She hesitated, and chose, “Oh. We... Um... Yes.”  
Velvet offered a second controller.  
“Would you like to play?”  
Weiss answered, “Yes... I think,” before thinking.  
The game started while she was looking at the buttons. She looked up at the screen, which had split into two.  
“You're getting hit,” Velvet noted.  
Weiss saw lots of sparkles and swishes and swords, but couldn't make sense of them.  
She asked, “What do I do?”

And the night carried on from there. For two hours, Blake relaxed with Yatsuhashi and remembered from a safe distance her days in the wild. Weiss sat on edge for the first twenty minutes, carefully choosing her strategy, timing her maneuvers, and playing just as Velvet was. It was at the end of that twenty minutes that she realized she and Velvet were playing completely different games. And for once, she relaxed, and she focused on the screen, and she felt as if Velvet were simply another human.

Ruby sat in a chair in the room's center and dangled her feet. She wondered if there would be cookies. There were not.

Yang reclined on the beanbag beside Fox to watch the movie in his lap, brushing their arms, leaning her breasts to him, letting her hair dangle. Coco was sipping beer and criticizing the acting, oblivious to their flirting.

“Look, this is the worst scene,” she grumbled.  
Mouthing along with the actor, she quoted, “I didn't realize a huntress could be so... Ravashing.”  
Weiss set down her controller, and excused herself from the game. Her instincts to work the party had finally overpowered her. Coco seemed the most interactive, so she hopped onto the beanbag, looked at the movie, and froze in utter terror.

Her mind simply refused to accept what she was watching. Playing a videogame with Velvet had been a way to dip her toe in the pond. Now she was thrust into equality like some kidnapped princess being ravaged by boors.  
“Is this... ?” she croaked.  
Coco turned her head to ask, “huh?” but kept watching.  
“This is... Pornography,” Weiss whispered.  
“Yeah,” Coco tilted her beer to drink.  
Weiss continued, “And that girl... She's... I don't think she's really a huntress. I mean... I would never...”  
She stopped herself. In her mind was the anxious chibi-self shouting, “Don't say 'with a faunus!' She'll think you're racist!”  
Weiss stuttered, “U-u-um, her outfit is... Pretty.”  
Coco's turned to the younger girl, a slight swagger and sway in her head from the alcohol. She pulled her glasses low over her nose as if to ask, “are you serious right now?”  
The actress on screen moaned, “Mmmmm, your fur is so coarse!”  
“This is where I come in,” Fox pointed.  
And that was when he entered the scene to say, “Is there room for three?”  
Coco leaned in, excited, and nudged him.  
“Nice abs, Champ.”

Weiss stood up and looked away. She looked back at the screen. She looked to Yang for help, and saw her leaning in to watch. Weiss looked away again.

“Uh... Excuse me,” was how she excused herself.

She promised herself that she would simply not speak of that event again. Everyone else seemed okay with it, Ruby was too innocent to bother about it, and Blake... What would she say to Blake?  
“I saw a faunus having sex with a human and that's gross?”  
Blake, Weiss told herself, would find a way to make it political, when it was really just about the natural order of things.

Two weeks passed before she broke.  
“Okay! Blake? We need to talk,” she blurted.  
Weiss was seated on her bed. Blake was seated across the room from her.  
“Weiss... We are talking. We've been talking.”  
“Okay, well I can't handle it anymore, okay? I've been trying not to make a scene, but- you know what? I don't have to be quiet about this. It was gross!”  
Blake had a textbook in her lap. She closed it and set it aside.  
She asked, “Whaaaaaaaaat are we talking about?”  
“Okay, look,” Weiss snapped, “there was a thing on the net, okay? It had... There were these... And I don't mean to be racist, but I can't understand why anyone would, you know... But, I mean, do you know? And that's why I don't want to bring it up, but I can't not anymore!”  
Blake tried to piece it together. She shook her head and asked, “what?”  
“Fine!” Weiss huffed, “Nevermind. Forget I said anything.”

The next outburst was at the park. Weiss and Ruby were looking for fresh air at the same time as Yatsuhashi and Velvet. The conversation started normally. Ruby and Yatsuhashi had great fun seeing how high they could send Ruby with aura-assisted jumps. Velvet and Weiss were not so indulgent, and both stood at a safe distance as Ruby's “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Dopplered into the clouds.

“Velvet,” Weiss asked, “Are faunus attracted to humans?”  
Velvet pursed her lips and held back her adrenaline. Her parents had warned her that she would meet people who would smile and nod and act civil, but who were really just waiting for her to get down on all fours and act like an animal. She'd been told by all of her role models that she had the burden of proving the place of a faunus in society.  
“Weiss... When you think of faunus and humans...”  
BOOM.  
“WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”  
“Let me put it this way, Weiss: What is the difference between you and Ruby?”  
She kept her smile sincere. And Weiss thought about it sincerely.  
“Well... Ruby is impulsive, childish, creative, and enthusiastic. But I'm cautious, tempered, calculating, and strict.”  
“Okay,” Velvet nodded, “but what's the difference between you and Blake?”  
“Well, obviously, she's a faunus, and I'm a human,” Weiss blurted.  
Velvet didn't answer immediately. She waited, and watched as Weiss' expression changed, as she realized the lesson.  
“Weiss, I don't know how much you know about faunus, but... Well... You have a teammate who-”  
“Yeah, but I can't talk to Blake about this kind of thing! She'll get mad and yell at me and I'll yell at her and we'll be arguing again!”  
“Oh. Well... You do come on a bit strong sometimes.”  
Weiss retracted. She had a long, quiet moment of deep thought.  
“Sorry,” she finally said.

That night, as Ruby and Yang headed out to walk Zwei, Weiss mustered her courage and sat next to Blake.  
“Uh oh,” Blake guessed.  
“No, no, I don't want to have an outburst, Blake. I just...”  
Weiss was staring at the floor. She looked up and sought Blake's eyes.  
“We're friends, right, Blake?”  
Blake nodded, “I can't judge you by the circumstances of your birth. Especially after you've looked past mine. I guess we just have to see each other for who we are.”  
Weiss didn't want to show it, but the depth of that acknowledgment of her agency woke a limb neglected by her family. She reached into Blake's lap and held her hand.  
“Thank you, Blake.”  
“Yeah. Of course. Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad to see I was wrong about the Schnees.”  
“And I'm glad I was wrong about the faunus,” Weiss agreed, “although Sun is still a degenerate bum.”  
Blake looked for a second as if she would take offense. Then she nodded and whispered, “Yeah, actually.”  
“Did something happen?”  
“He took me on a date and, well, 'forgot' his wallet.”  
“That brute!”  
“Yeah,” Blake nodded.  
She refocused and looked Weiss in the eyes.  
“But you were saying something.”  
“I just... There's something that's been bothering me. When we went to team Coffee's room, Fox and Coco were watching a video.”  
“Oh,” Blake realized.  
Weiss nodded, “And there was-”  
Blake shook her head.  
“Say no more, Weiss.”  
“You find it gross, too?”  
“Very,” Blake agreed.  
Weiss sighed with relief.  
“Oh good. I thought I was the only one.”  
“Yeah. I don't understand why an aspiring huntsman would ever star in something like that. Not to mention the huntress. It really undermines the image people have of us.”  
“Oh,” Weiss realized.  
“What?”  
“You meant... Well yes, that's very bad, what you said, those things.”  
Blake nodded, “yeah. Did you mean something else?”  
It took her another second to connect the dots and sigh. Their hands were still holding each other, which made this very awkward for Weiss. Blake kept the contact for its own sake. She reminded herself that Weiss was her friend who simply didn't understand.  
“Weiss,” she started.  
“Yes, Blake?”  
“I don't care what your... Preferences are. That's yours to have.”  
“My... I mean, this isn't about my preferences. This is just the-”  
The mini-Weiss on her shoulder screamed, “Don't say 'the natural order of things!' She'll think you're a racist!”  
“This is just...”  
Blake interrupted before Weiss could say anything truly stupid.  
“I understand it can be a little shocking, especially since... Well, I won't pretend we do things the same way.”  
“You don't?” Weiss blurted.

Blake avoided her gaze.  
“Oh boy,” she whispered.  
Weiss wisely detected the end of her tolerance, and patted Blake's hand.  
“You know what, Blake? I think that was enough for me, for today.”  
“Okay,” Blake agreed.  
Weiss stood and walked to her bed, then thought again and asked, “But... Another time... Could we... Could we talk about this more?”  
Blake lifted her chin to nod, then tilted her head to shake, then wobbled the expression until it only meant “I'm uncomfortable.”  
She said, “Yeah. Another time.”

The other time was in the field. Teams RWBY and CFVY were camping together outside of Vale's walls, on a high cliff overlooking a trail of Goliaths. Weiss and Blake had guard duty, and sat beside each other, taking in the view.

“So... Is now a good time?” Weiss asked.  
“Y-yeah, I guess,” Blake said.  
Weiss huffed, then unloaded her feelings.  
“So... I feel grossed out by it because I imagine, you know, that the girl is me. Because I'm a girl.”  
“Okay?”  
“But when I imagine that it's me...”  
Blake interrupted, “Have you tried... Not imagining it?”  
“Yes! But I keep thinking about it!”  
“Oh. Well, alright. Go on.”  
“So I think about it, and I imagine I'm her. And in the video, there's a dog faunus, and the girl pushes him onto the bed and climbs on top of him. And she's... Well, she has a combat skirt on, like mine, but black. And she lets it sit in a very compromising way. She doesn't fix it.”  
Blake shifted her weight on her boulder seat. Weiss continued.  
“And that makes me imagine, that, well, that it's me, on top of the dog faunus. And, well, I've never met a dog faunus, but I think that their hair is probably very coarse. And that doesn't feel comfortable, because I have very soft skin. So it would prick me and be rough.”  
Blake made a point of staring out to the horizon. When Weiss seemed finished, she glanced over and said, “oh.”  
“But the girl in the video seemed to be enjoying it. And that made me think... Why? What about his ears? What about his nose? And his eyes would look funny. And, well, not to mention, when she leans in to kiss him, he bites her lips. Not hard, she doesn't bleed or anything, but he has sharp teeth.”  
Blake cleared her throat. Twenty meters away, Professors Oobleck lay on his cot and stared intently at the ceiling. Wordlessly, soundlessly, he turned to his right to see Professor Port on the cot beside him. Port was also awake. And looking into each others eyes, they talked without words.  
“Peter, are they paying you enough to handle this?”  
“Bartholomew, I don't even have the credentials to handle this.”  
They turned back to the ceiling and never spoke of it again.  
“Then there's the scene where Fox walks in,” Weiss continued.  
“Oh,” Blake nodded.  
“And while the girl is sitting on top of the dog faunus, Fox- he, well-” she made vague gestures with her hands.  
“She gets squished,” Weiss summarized.  
Blake loosened her collar.  
“And, well, I know faunus, well I don't know, actually, but I'm guessing, because I know dogs and foxes like to pile on top of each other sometimes. And, well, humans don't. But they were in this pile, breathing each other's air and rubbing and touching and sweating and growling and moaning, but there's this human girl in the middle with perfect, pale skin.”  
She looked at Blake, noticing that they both had that trait in common with the actress. Her gaze lingered. Blake looked away from the horizon, then scrambled her eyes elsewhere when nervous tension made her think Weiss was reading her innermost thoughts. Blake sat rigid.  
“That sounds... Hard to watch,” she lied.  
“And I don't mean to say that faunus can't be attractive!” Weiss appended.  
“No, I didn't take it that way,” Blake said.  
“Good. It's just. Well, it's the mixing part. I mean, I assume you wouldn't ever want to... Do anything like that, with a human. Not that a human wouldn't want to! Because, well, you're Blake.”  
Blake pushed her hair back behind her ear. Her body language was stuttering.  
“I, thanks? I'm sure a faunus would like to... Do that... With you, too.”  
“Well of course they would,” Weiss snapped.  
They were quiet long enough for the conversation to disengage. Blake sighed the tension free and let the night air cool her off.  
“And-” Weiss started.  
“Let's talk about it more later,” Blake said.  
“Yeah. Okay,” Weiss agreed.

Crickets and glowbugs chirped through the night, perfectly audible through the sheer tents.  
To the ceiling, Coco said, “Someone's gotta tell her.”  
Everyone else sighed.

Later meant a month. Weiss and Blake were studying again, sitting across from each other and comparing insights as they read through bestiaries. Blake looked up and asked, “What did you mean?”  
“What?”  
“Before, when we were... You know, talking. You said you could understand if a human wanted to... Do things with me.”  
Weiss closed her book, and appeared to be picking her words very carefully.  
“Well...”  
They met eyes. Weiss looked away.  
“I suppose I only meant that you're pretty, and you're... Well, when I think about you, I don't think, 'oh, there's a faunus. I wonder if it's a White Fang assassin and I have to fight for my life again.' I look at you and I see...”  
Weiss looked at her.  
“I see... Blake.”  
“But I literally was a White Fang assassin,” Blake corrected.  
Weiss looked at her hands, and wrung them together as she answered.  
“That's a technicality. And besides that, you really don't have any of the traits that I... The, you know, preferences. I mean, when you put the bow on, people can hardly tell you aren't human. And, sure, you have some fur on your ears, but it looks soft.”  
“It is,” Blake admitted.  
Weiss looked up, at Blake's ears, then away.  
“Oh,” she said.  
Blake set her book aside and walked to the door. She paused there, her back to Weiss, and made her decision by locking the deadbolt. She sat beside Weiss and swallowed hard. Weiss did not scoot over for her. She hoped, and denied that she was hoping, that they could sit brushed against each other.

Blake took Weiss' hand and lifted it to her own head.  
“Feel them,” she instructed.  
Weiss gulped. She reached out, and her first contact with faunus fur sent a tingle through her fingers that threatened to unwind everything her family had instilled in her. Blake's ear twitched. Weiss looked down from it to her friend's eyes. The vertical pupils flexed as Blake giggled.  
“Careful,” she smiled, “they're sensitive.”  
She came to a rest from that flinch no more than a breath away from Weiss. It wasn't some foul animal smell. Blake smelled like a girl. She smiled like a girl. She leaned in and kissed like a girl.


End file.
